


Sweet, Sweet Memories

by DizzyDrea



Category: NCIS
Genre: Delirium, Gen, Humor, Possibly Pre-Slash, Pre-Series, Temporary Amnesia, Trope Bingo Round 8
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-26
Updated: 2017-06-26
Packaged: 2018-11-19 12:17:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11313237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DizzyDrea/pseuds/DizzyDrea
Summary: Everyone knows that Tony DiNozzo gets loopy when on certain medications. It's still funny as hell when it happens.





	Sweet, Sweet Memories

**Author's Note:**

> I'm fairly certain this has been done before, a few years back when the video first went viral of the guy who was hopped up on post-surgery pain meds and what was left of the anesthesia, utterly shocked that he was married to the hottest woman on Earth. Still, Tony's averse reactions to most medications is tailor-made for this scenario, so this is what happens when my Trope Bingo card has an amnesia square, and I'm missing Tony on NCIS more than I can say. Takes place pre-series, sometime after the events of "Baltimore". Title for the story comes from that old Dean Martin standard "Memories Are Made of This", because Tony and Dean are brothers from another mother. Seriously.
> 
> For the _Amnesia_ square on my Trope Bingo Round 8 card.
> 
> Disclaimer: NCIS and all its particulars are the property of CBS, Paramount, Donald P. Bellisario, Belisarius Productions and a lot of other people who aren’t me. I am doing this for fun and for practice. Mostly for fun.

~o~

Special Agent Jethro Gibbs stood in the waiting room, sipping on his third cup of coffee, waiting less-than-patiently for his partner to emerge from surgery into the recovery room.

He'd tried sitting in one of the uncomfortable chairs in the waiting room, but his back had screamed at him less than ten minutes later. He knew he was unnerving the nurses with his glaring and the absolute stillness of his body as he stood waiting, but he couldn't help it, and wouldn't even if he could. Tony had been shot. Again. And while he'd been worried, he'd been a sniper for too long to not understand the concept of stillness in the face of a stressful moment.

So, he'd stood staring at the nurse's station, willing them to bring him good news, and probably scaring a few years out of anyone sitting in his direct line of sight. Tony would tell him to stop scaring the nurses; Gibbs didn't care if he was scaring them. Who knew? Maybe it would get them moving on getting him some answers.

No sooner had the thought settled in his mind than a doctor in scrubs and a white lab coat stepped through the double doors and made a beeline for him. He pushed off the wall and met the doctor halfway.

"Doc, how's he doing?"

"Special Agent DiNozzo is a pain in my ass," the doctor said, lips pursed like he'd just sucked a lemon. "He tried to leave twice before we were finally able to put him under for the surgery, and my nurse says he's already tried to escape Recovery, and he's only been out of surgery for fifteen minutes."

Gibbs just chuckled. Yeah, that sounded like Tony. "You want my advice? If you plan to keep him longer than 24 hours, you're gonna have to sedate him."

"Great," the doctor muttered. "He came through the surgery fine. Not much tissue damage, despite the fact that the round lodged under his collar bone. He'll need rest and minimal physical therapy, but he should be good for desk duty in a week. I imagine he'll be ready to resume his full duties in maybe three weeks, if all goes well and he does his PT like he's supposed to."

"He will," Gibbs assured the doctor. "I'll make sure."

"Thanks," the doctor huffed.

"Can I see him?" Gibbs asked when it appeared the doctor wasn't going to offer.

"Sure," the doctor said with a sardonic smile. "Maybe you can convince him not to leave AMA."

"I'll do my best, Doc," Gibbs said with a chuckle.

The doctor waved at a nurse. "I'll have someone walk you back."

"Thanks, Doc," Gibbs said. 

He shook the man's hand, then followed the nurse when she joined them. They passed through the double doors and around a few corners before landing in the Surgical Recovery room. It was a mark of how many times they'd each been hurt that he knew his way there without an escort and wouldn't have any trouble finding his way out.

"Bay three, Agent Gibbs," the nurse said quietly.

Gibbs nodded at her and pushed inside. The room was quiet, nothing but the beeping of heart monitors and the hiss of ventilators greeting him as he made his way to Tony's bedside.

When he pulled the curtain aside, he saw his partner for the first time in several hours. He was pale, a slight pinch around his eyes speaking to some lingering discomfort, but he looked a damned sight better than he had that morning. 

They'd been chasing their subject through a wooded area to the west of Tyson's Corner when he'd turned and fired with a gun neither of them knew he had. The first bullet had gone wide, but the second had hit Tony high on the shoulder, clipping his vest before embedding itself under his collar bone. He'd bled a lot, but not as much as he would have if the bullet had hit anything important. 

Tony was never an easy patient, but being forced to have surgery and stay in the hospital for observation was sure to test all of them in ways Gibbs found frustrating. He set his coffee down on the tray table beside the bed and stroked a hand over Tony's forehead and back into his hair, sweeping the bangs away so he could get a better look at him. His thumb caressed Tony's forehead without any real thought. Tony was important to Gibbs, so much so that he hated to see the man suffering. 

Plus, he'd be a pain in the ass until his shoulder healed, and they'd be off rotation since they were a two man team. Director Morrow had been making noise about adding two more to their team, to turn it into a true investigative team. Gibbs had had a hard enough time finding one person he could work with; finding two more might just kill him, but at least with a full four man team, he wouldn't be out of commission while Tony was in the hospital. It was something to think about later. Right now he had more important things to worry about.

Tony's eyes started fluttering, his head shaking from side to side just a little as he reached for consciousness. 

"That's it, Tony, wake up for me," Gibbs said quietly as he leaned down over the bed. "Come on, open those eyes for me. Need to see if you're okay."

Tony groaned, his words a little slurred when he spoke. "Jesus, did anybody get the license plate on the truck that ran me over?"

"Not a truck," Gibbs said with some fondness. "Idiot with a gun."

"Even better," Tony said. He slit his eyes open, just a little, squinting up at Gibbs through barely-open eyes. "You're kinda pretty. Are we dating?"

Gibbs nearly choked on his own spit. He knew Tony had some issues with sedatives and pain meds; he'd seen him get loopy often enough, but this was something else.

"No, Tony, we're not dating," Gibbs said. He tried to keep the laughter out of his voice. If Tony remembered this, he wasn't going to thank Gibbs for laughing at him. "I'm your boss, remember?"

"Sucks," Tony said, shaking his head a little. "Got that whole silver fox thing going on. Sexy."

"I’m aware," Gibbs said. At least two of his ex-wives had said the same thing.

"So, how do I know you if we're not, you know," Tony asked. 

His eyes were a little bit more open, but they were glassy, and Gibbs could tell he wasn't tracking well. Whatever they'd given him had really messed with his mind.

"We're partners," Gibbs said without thinking.

"Hey, wait a minute," Tony said, a little outraged, his hand waving around until Gibbs grabbed it and held it close to Tony's chest. "I thought you said we weren't—"

"We aren't," Gibbs said. "We're federal agents. See?"

He tugged his badge off his belt and handed it to Tony. The younger man took it and fingered the badge in a way that made Gibbs think things he had no business thinking.

"Cops, huh?" Tony said. "That's even worse. Boy's club. Homophobic assholes, all of them."

Again, Gibbs nearly choked on his own spit. He was getting Tony's uncensored thoughts about this whole situation; he just hoped the other man would forget all about it when he was awake and more aware.

"NCIS," Gibbs said by way of explanation. When Tony frowned, he elaborated. "Navy cops. We're good, you and me. Solve lots of crimes, put away lots of bad guys."

"At least you're not snooty and pre—prentesh—snooty," Tony said, stumbling on the large word. Gibbs would never understand how he could remember homophobic and forget pretentious.

"No one would ever accuse me of being snooty, Tony," Gibbs said with all seriousness. "A bastard, yes, but never snooty."

"Bastard, huh?" Tony said. He squinted one eye as he looked at Gibbs critically, as if he could divine all his secrets just by looking at him. "Yeah, I can see it. But not to me. I'm special."

Gibbs chuckled. "Yes, you are. Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo, Jr."

"Christ, now I know who the snooty one is," Tony muttered. "As soon as I wake up, I'm changing my name."

"I'll even get you the forms," Gibbs said fondly. Not that he thought Tony would ever actually do it, but he understood now just how much he hated being associated with his father. 

"Cool," Tony said. His eyes drifted closed, and Gibbs thought maybe he'd gone back to sleep, but they popped open just a few moments later, zeroing in on him. "I would, you know."

"Would what?" Gibbs asked. He had no idea what Tony was about to say, and he was curious, but given that the man was divulging secrets he might never give up if he weren't under the influence, he also felt a little like maybe he should shut the man up before he gave too much away.

"Date you," Tony said quietly. "I totally would."

"Oh?" Gibbs asked as casually as he was capable of. Not that he'd ever take him up on it, because Rule 12 existed for a reason, but he couldn't help asking, "And why's that?"

Tony's eyes drifted closed. "Because you're here. And you're sexy as hell."

Gibbs could only stand in shocked silence as his partner drifted off to sleep once more. A nurse came by to check on his vitals, but Gibbs just ignored her, dropping into the chair by his bed as he continued to stare at the young man in the bed.

He knew Tony's main complaint about his father had been that he hadn't been there for Tony since he was eleven and shipped off to boarding school. And whether it was fair or not, he'd always felt abandoned by the mother that died in a car crash just a few years before. Tony craved stability, something he'd had very little of in his life. And he trusted very few people in this world. Gibbs had never quite understood why Tony trusted him, but he had from the first day they'd met, and he'd tried never to abuse that trust.

Still, this was information that Tony would probably have never told him if he wasn't hopped up on drugs. He wasn't an idiot, despite what a lot of folks thought. Gibbs hadn't gotten where he was by being unobservant. He'd seen Tony look a time or two, but he'd thought it was just idle curiosity. But maybe it wasn't.

Not that he would do anything about it. He had rules for a reason, and for the most part, they'd served him well. Tony had always challenged him more than all his ex-wives put together, but that didn't mean that anything had to happen between them. He liked their relationship just as it was, so unless Tony brought it up—and he didn't need to be a math major to know just how statistically unlikely that would be—he wouldn't say anything either.

Tony, he knew, would be mortified when his head cleared and he realized what he'd done, but that was a problem for another day, one when Tony wasn't in the hospital with a recent gunshot wound. 

Gibbs grabbed his forgotten cup of coffee from the tray table and took a large sip. It was verging on cold, but he wasn't going anywhere while Tony was in and out of consciousness. He'd keep watch and make sure his partner didn't say anything else incriminating. It was the least of the things he owed the man, and Gibbs was all about paying his debts.

Besides, Tony had always been amusing, and you couldn't buy this kind of entertainment. And if he just needed eyes on Tony to make sure he recovered, well, that was between him and the four walls.

~Finis


End file.
